


I am saved by the fact that you exist

by Dead_Fireflies375



Series: DE Artfest 2020 [6]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, DEArtfest, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fantasy Typical Violence, Fluff, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Gavin is a knight, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nightmares, Nines is a prince, Past Child Abuse, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Is Bad at Feelings, but so is the rest of the RK line, but speed run cause they are dumb and gay, like what you would expect from an episode of BBC Robin Hood, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dead_Fireflies375/pseuds/Dead_Fireflies375
Summary: Prince Richard Arkay: As the youngest of nine children, he was never supposed to have much responsibility. But by the time that he reached adulthood, all that was left of his family in the castle was his older brother Connor who was just crowned king, making him the second most powerful person in the kingdom. He would be more okay with his situation if it weren't for that insufferable knight who seems to make it his personal mission to be as annoying as possible.Sir Gavin Reed: Being a knight was an agreeable job for Gavin, he was good at it and he liked doing it. Most of the time. As far as he was concerned, the two remaining members of the royal family were a couple of insufferable pricks. Especially the prince with his stuck-up pretentious attitude.Unfortunately for them, a series of assassination attempts on Connor leads to the two of them having to team up to go find Connor and Richard's older brother who left the royal family years ago in order to ask for aid. Neither party finds the situation agreeable at first, but as the two are forced to spend more time together, how will their opinions of each other change?DE Artfest Day 26: Royal AU
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution)/North (Detroit: Become Human), Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: DE Artfest 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814305
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	I am saved by the fact that you exist

**Author's Note:**

> Hello y'all!!!
> 
> Now ya boy kinda struggled with this one cause he decided at the last minute to completely change the plot he had been planning all month because he is an idiot. Ya boy is also trying to write like three to four other fics in a matter of days so this went from being a one-shot to a multichapter because if he waits any longer to publish this, it'll be weeks before he gets the other projects officially started and published.
> 
> Anyways this is an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers speed run because it is already going to be long enough without me turning this into a proper slow burn.
> 
> Does it still count as a royal AU if your one royal mc spends 80% of the plot pretending that he isn't royalty?
> 
> Anyways have fun reading y'all. Medival fantasy-style stuff like this was my heart's blood as a child and I am super psyched to get to tap into that realm again and with my two special boys at that

No one could remember a time where the Arkay family was not ruling the land. But that time looked like it was soon to end. The last king had nine children, a good insurance for any ruler who wanted to ensure the continuation of their line. But child mortality rates were a bitch and so were plagues. Only four of the nine children survived to adulthood. The eldest was soon banished. The second eldest abdicated and ran away to form his own life far away. This left only the two youngest children, child number eight and child number nine, to rule the kingdom. And then when a sudden illness claimed the king and queen, Connor, the eldest remaining child, was crowned king at the young age of twenty while his younger brother, Richard, had to take on all the other responsibilities that were supposed to be split between the siblings. In short, there was little hope for the future of the Arkay line.

Gavin couldn’t give less of a shit about that though.

The Reed family had always served as knights in the kingdom and as much as Gavin hated everything there was about his family, being a knight wasn’t too bad. Landed him a pretty decent life all things considered and was a pretty decent outlet for his aggression most of the time. The thing he hated though above all else was the young king and prince. As far as Gavin was concerned, they were two royal brats who he absolutely hated to have to work for. Connor was annoying and fake and Richard only had two abilities: glaring at Gavin and ignoring Gavin. If they weren’t his literal bosses and could have him hanged for treason, he would gladly punch both of them in the face. Luckily, he hardly ever had to deal with them. Well, he  _ had _ hardly had to deal with them.

“What the fuck is going on here, Fowler?”

Fowler, the captain of the guard, pinched the bridge of his nose. “Given the circumstances, I’m going to ignore that. But you’re on thin ice, Reed.”

Gavin had been suddenly called to a secret meeting with Fowler in the middle of the night. That wouldn’t be so horribly strange if it weren't for the fact that when he walked into the room, he was immediately greeted by Connor and Richard also being present. Richard was glaring at him like normal while Connor looked more disheveled than his standard.

“I should explain,” Connor started, “Are you familiar with the Sterns?”

“Look, just cause I didn’t get whatever fancy private education you guys got, doesn’t mean that I’m an idiot. Of course, I fucking know who the Sterns are.”

“ _ Reed _ -” Fowler began, giving him a warning look.

“Fine. Of course I fucking know who the Sterns are,  _ your majesty _ . Care to explain why I’m needed for a private audience at three in the morning?”

Fowler sighed and walked over behind his desk. He grabbed something from behind it and lifted a body out, placing it on the desk. “This is the fifth assassin sent from Amanda Stern in the past two weeks.”

“Why is this assassination problem not common fucking knowledge? Isn’t this something I should have been aware of?”

“We’re telling you know, aren’t we?” Richard coldly bit back.

Gavin bit down the snarky remark he wanted to send back to the prince and settled for glaring at him.

“Truth is,” Conor responded, “Our people are in no shape for war. This country is but a shell of its former power. The Stern family has always resented us. They believe that we cheated them out of power. Amanda has now amassed enough power of her own to become a formidable opponent. There are not enough people loyal to the crown to go against them if this conflict were to break out into a total war. Public acknowledgment of these attacks would demand that.”

“With all due respect to your majesty, I fail to see what any of this has to do with me.”

“Neither do I,” Richard added.

“There is one person who if we ask for help, could turn things to our favor. From what I’ve heard, Markus has gathered himself a decent-sized following since he left. With his help, we could have a decent shot at fighting back.”

“Are you forgetting when he disowned our family and said he never wanted to see us again?” Richard questioned. Gavin guessed that Connor must not have briefed his brother on his plan.

“Father didn’t leave me many alliances to call on. Markus is our best chance. I need you to find him and request aid. I would go myself, but my absence here would raise too much suspicion.”

“That doesn’t explain why  _ he’s _ here.”

“You’re not going to make this trip alone. Even though you will be traveling in secret in order to not alert any of Amanda’s assassins to your whereabouts, I can’t send you without some sort of protection. I asked Captain Fowler to select his best knight suited for the job.”

It took Gavin and Richard both a bit to process what Connor was saying before realization dawned on them and they simultaneously exclaimed, “Absolutely not!”

Connor and Fowler both sighed. Connor grabbed Richard’s arm and pulled him aside where the two had a hushed but intense conversation. Fowler affixed Gavin with one of his stares that Gavin knew meant he was about to get chewed out.

“I am not going to babysit that prince,” Gavin informed him before Fowler could start his lecture, “Find somebody else.”

“Reed, you are one of the best knights in the whole kingdom. Despite everything, you’ve proven yourself time and time again as being more than capable of doing your job. You are the best choice for this mission.”

“Like hell I am! I’m not a fucking babysitter. Why don’t you ask Tina or Chris or someone?”

“This is a mission of utmost secrecy. Having to explain their whereabouts to their spouses could put everything in jeopardy. You are our best chance of success for this mission and that is final, Reed.”

“But-”

“I said that it’s final, Reed. The entire future of our country is at stake here. I need you to come through on this one.”

Gavin sighed. He really, really didn’t want to do this one. But it didn’t look like he had much of a choice. He gritted his teeth.

“Fine. But I’m not going to enjoy myself.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

It looked like Connor and Richard had also reached a similar reluctant agreement. Richard gave Gavin one of his trademarked glares as he begrudgingly walked back over.

“So we’re in agreement?” Connor asked.

“As much as we’ll ever be,” Fowler responded, “Come on, Reed, you know what you’re supposed to do.”

Gavin sighed heavily before glaring back at Richard, just to make sure he knew exactly how much Gavin hated doing this, before getting down on one knee.

“I, Sir Gavin Reed, knight of the Arkay Kingdom solemnly swear to protect and serve his Highness Prince Richard Arkay the First till death claims me or his Highness releases me,” Gavin said, making no attempt to hide his bitterness.

“I accept these terms,” Richard replied, matching the level of bitterness in his tone.

“Great. Now that’s over with, let’s sneak you two out,” Connor said.

The two of them had been given enough equipment to make the two to four-week journey to Jericho, Markus’ new colony. They had both been dressed up to pass as standard travelers in order to keep their identities secret. Connor assured them that he would handle explaining Richard’s absence and Fowler was right when he picked Gavin: there wasn’t anyone who was going to make a big deal of his absence. The two had not said a word to each other as they made their way through the dark forest that bordered the castle. Gavin intended to make a good amount of ground before the sun rose, wanting this trip to be over with as quickly as possible.

“Okay, we need to set some ground rules,” Gavin finally said.

“And here I was so enjoying the silence.”

“Look, I want to get this shit over with as soon as possible.”

“Agreed.”

“So we’re going to power through as quickly as possible. No complaining or lagging behind.”

“Obviously.”

“Also none of that royalty privilege shit out here. We’re on a secret assignment so we can’t risk running into someone and them recognizing you. So none of that ‘your Highness’ crap or any shit like that. Out here, we’re fucking equals. I ain’t giving you any royalty treatment during this thing.”

“Fine. I can live that.”

“And because of that, we’re changing your name.”

“Why? What’s wrong with my name?”

“Look, we’re already at a disadvantage with you having one of the most recognizable faces in the kingdom. If someone overhears me calling you Richard, it won’t be hard for them to put two and two together.”

“Fine. What do you suggest then?”

“Uhm … Nine.”

“Nine? The hell is that?”

“It’s a name. I’d go with pompous asshole but for some reason, I figured your chances of going along with that one was real low.”

“Did you just go with the fact that I was the ninth child of my family and then decided that no extra thought was needed?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it clearly does. It is extremely uncreative and unoriginal. Why am I not surprised?”

“Fuck off. Okay then, Nines, if you’re going to be picky” Gavin retorted, added extra emphasis on the s.

“Did you really just add an extra s on the end?”

“Yes. Got any better ideas?”

“You are really infuriating, you know that?”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

The glare that Richard, now Nines, gave him was more than enough of an answer.

“Alright, Nines, it is. One more thing. At no point are you going to run off on your own and do something stupid that could get yourself killed.”

“Is that an attempt at empathy I hear?”

“No. Fact of the matter is, you return here without a knight and they’ll maybe have a brief moment of silence and then carry on. I return without the prince? Well then my ass is going to be the one who gets it.”

“Is this your roundabout way of saying you actually care if I live or die?”

“As long as my neck is on the line, then  _ yes _ . Rest assured if my own survival wasn’t dependent on yours, I wouldn’t give a shit.”

“Never thought I’d see the day where Gavin Reed would care if he got in trouble.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Please, your disciplinary file rivals those who have been in service to the crown for decades and you’re only what? Twenty-one? Are you trying to set a record?”

“The hell you looking in my file for? You stalking me or some shit?”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I read everyone’s disciplinary folders. It’s kind of my job, you know? What with being the next in line to the throne and overseer to our armed forces and all.”

“Is it a requirement to be a prick if you’re part of a royal family or are you guys just outliers?”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

“You’re not saying anything that I haven’t heard a hundred times before. But I think I may get to take the title of being the first person to ever call you a prick to your face. ‘Sides, at least I’m not all bark and no bite.”

Nines stopped in his tracks and looked to Gavin.

“You think I’m not willing to bite?”

“No,” Gavin replied, taking a step closer to Nines, “I don’t. I think you’re a stuck-up pretentious asshole who has never had anyone ever directly challenge him to his face.”

Nines’ fist quickly connected with Gavin’s jaw. Gavin couldn’t hold back a smile. It wasn’t a bad punch, but he had dealt with worse. Besides, prince or not, nobody trained harder than Gavin did.

“You believe I would now?”

“Mmm, not really. Anyone can throw the first punch. Show me what ya really got.”

The second punch Gavin was ready for and he effectively dodged. He landed an uppercut on Nines, causing him to stumble back a bit. That seemed to ignite the fight with a new level of energy. Gavin was landing more blows than he was missing, but so was Nines. Eventually, Gavin was able to knock Nines off his feet, but not without getting taken down with him.

Gavin had the advantage of falling on top of Nines, but he soon got elbowed in the face, throwing him off. Nines was able to land one more good punch to Gavin’s face before Gavin was able to throw Nines off and get on top of him. He hit the prince once more for good measure before he paused. The two were both breathing heavily as the rush of adrenaline poured through their veins. The look in Nines’ eyes was still just as full of fury as before. Nines’ lip was busted and he was already starting to get a black eye. Gavin could feel the blood dribble down from his nose and the bruises that were beginning to bloom on his cheeks. Gavin got up.

“There. Now no one will mistake you for a prince. Come on, we need to make some more ground before dawn.”

“You got me to fight you on purpose?”

“Maybe. Thought it would be good for the princely ego for you to get your ass kicked by a lowly commoner like myself.”

“I hate you. So much,” Nines grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off.

“Don’t worry. The feeling is mutual,” Gavin replied and they continued on.

They continued on throughout the day, only stopping occasionally to quickly eat or drink anything. They kept conversation at a bare minimum, the fight seeming to have done little to assuage the tensions between them. They encountered little travelers on their path and avoided the crowded areas. They would stop in some of the cities later when they were further out. Right now, they were just trying to get out of the immediate area. 

Once the sun started setting, Gavin found a place for them to stop for the night. As much as he wanted to just keep pushing through, they had been going since the middle of last night. If they didn’t stop for the night, they were going to run themselves ragged before they even made it to Jericho.

Gavin started a small fire and the two of them pulled out some of their rations, eating in silence on opposite sides of the fire. Gavin noticed that Nines kept rubbing his right hand and wincing. Eventually, he got tired of the tense silence.

“What’s with your hand?”

“Oh, it’s … it’s nothing.”

“Bullshit. You’ve been bothering it nonstop.”

“I … I think I must have fallen on it wrong or something earlier.”

“Here. Let me see.”

Nines shot him an apprehensive look.

“Look, better to deal with this now instead of waiting and having it stab us in the back later,” Gavin explained.

Nines hesitantly scooted over a bit closer before he reached his hand out. Gavin gingerly took it, trying to get a better look at it in the light of the fire. Nines’ hand was … soft. Of course it was soft, he was a goddamn prince that never did a day of hard work in his life. Gavin pushed those thoughts far back into his mind and tried to focus on checking for injuries. 

“Can you move your fingers?”

Nines nodded as he moved his fingers a bit.

“Well, that’s a good sign. Let me see your other hand so I can see if there’s any swelling.”

Nines let Gavin grab his other hand and he compared the two.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much swelling. I don’t feel anything broken either,” Gavin let go of his hands, “It’s probably just bruised and sore. You’ll be fine in a few days. Good thing too. It would be bad for both of us if your right hand was out of commission.”

“I’m left-handed.”

“Really? God, of course, you’re one of those pricks who wanted to be different and stand out by doing everything the wrong way.”

“I didn’t choose to be left-handed.”

“Sure, you didn’t,” Gavin rolled his eyes.

“Besides, left-handed people are supposed to be smarter.”

“That sounds like some bullshit y’all made up to justify your dumb decisions.”

Nines chuckled softly and Gavin found himself smiling a little.

“Well,” Gavin started, “I’ll take the first watch. I’ll wake you up in like four hours and we’ll switch.”

Nines simply nodded and went over to where they had set up their bedrolls.

“Better not hear you complain about not having your royal bedchambers to sleep in,” Gavin called back.

Nines settled for simply flipping him off before curling up on his bedroll.

Nothing happened during his watch. Gavin merely tended the fire as he tried to process everything that had happened in the past 24 hours. Learning that the Sterns were trying to eliminate Connor wasn’t too much of a surprise. The families have had a long-standing feud so it was inevitable that something would happen one day. But still being abruptly sent on a secret mission with the prince to find his long lost brother was a bit out of the left field. And yeah, Nines was a total prick but he was more bearable than Connor so Gavin was counting his blessings.

When about fours had passed, he went over to Nines and nudged him awake with his shoe.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty, it’s your turn.”

Nines groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“It’s that time already?”

“You’re gonna have to get used to running on four hours of sleep. At least until we’re far enough out that we can risk stopping at a tavern.”

Nines nodded and sleepily stood up and went over to the fire. Gavin went over to his bedroll and hoped that tonight would be a night where he could actually sleep.

_ He was upstairs. The sound of someone talking from the floor below could be heard. It was  _ his _ voice. The sound of his footsteps coming up the stairs startled Gavin into action. He ran down to the end of the hallway to hide in one of the rooms. He locked the door behind him but the room was empty. Gavin held his breath as he heard the pounding footsteps echo throughout the house as his father made his way up the stairs. The sound of the doors opening and being slammed shut as his father approached the room Gavin was hiding in. He tried to find someplace to hide in the room but there was nowhere. The footsteps were approaching. Gavin backed into the corner. The door handle jostled. His father started banging on the door, demanding that Gavin open the door. Gavin didn’t. He waited for his father to give up. His father didn’t. The pounding intensified. The door hinges were rattling. The door broke down. Gavin braced himself. _

_ It wasn’t his father anymore. One of the monsters he had been afraid of as a kid. But somehow much much worse. Its grotesque inhuman features made Gavin's blood run cold. Chains appeared from the floor, locking him in place. He thrashed against the chains, trying to break free. The monster approached. Gavin was panicking. He was going to die. He fought harder against the chains but they were unrelenting. The monster was so close. He was going to die. He remembered that he always kept a knife tucked in his sleeve. The monster’s jaws were almost on top of him. He grabbed his knife and went to slash its throat. _

Gavin blinked awake. His knife was pushing against the side of Nines’ neck, drawing a small drop of blood. Nines’ arms were grabbing him. It was then that Gavin realized he was shaking and hyperventilating as adrenaline coursed through his veins. Nines looked extremely concerned.

“I- I heard you struggling so I tried to…” Nines trailed off as he let go of Gavin’s arms.

Gavin dropped the hand that was holding the knife. He could see some of the tension that had been in Nines’ expression lift a bit at that, but he still looked worried.

“How- How long was I out?” he managed to croak out as he tried to steady his breathing.

“Only a couple of hours. We still have plenty of time before we start up again.”

Gavin only nodded as he tried to gather his bearings. It was still dark out, but the kind of dark that happened a couple of hours before dawn.

“You, uhm, you can get some more sleep if you want,” Gavin told him, “I’ll cover the rest of your watch.”

“But you-”

“Just do it. Think of it as a favor or something, I don’t know. Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

Nines opened his mouth to protest but then closed it and nodded.

Gavin stood up, still shaking a little bit, but a bit steadier as the panic of the dream began to wash away.

“Don’t say a fucking word about this, or I will kill you. Royalty be damned,” Gavin added.

“Of course.” Nines gave a half-smile but something felt off about it. Gavin didn’t feel like putting any extra thought into it right now.

He went over to the campfire and poked it a bit with a stick, trying to push the imagery of the nightmare as far down as possible.

“Oh, and Nines?’ Gavin called out. Nines poked his head up from his bedroll. “Uh, sorry about your neck,” he said, gesturing to the spot where he had unintentionally cut Nines.

Nines' hand went up to the cut as if he had forgotten about it. “It’s fine. I’m alright.”

Gavin looked back at the knife he had subconsciously slipped out of the hidden pocket in his sleeve. There were a couple of drops of already drying blood on it that Gavin obsessively scrubbed off as he heard Nines breathing even out.

The next day Gavin was tired, but he had been far worse before. Chronic insomnia coupled with nightmares will do that to a person. And yeah, maybe he didn’t have as much energy to be mean to Nines as they continued on their path. And maybe Nines seemed like he was holding back some of the punches, both figuratively and literally that day. It was certainly far from a couple of friends walking together, but they had toned down the animosity a bit compared to the previous day. There were again very few other people they came across in their travels and none of them paid any extra attention to the two. Gavin was pretty satisfied with the amount of progress they made throughout the day. At this rate, they would be at Jericho in two weeks and then at least there would be other people around so the two of them weren’t trapped alone together.

Gavin had Nines take the first watch. The lack of sleep was really starting to get him and he just really wanted to sleep.. Hopefully he’d make it the four hours without any more nightmares. Having Nines see it happen once was bad enough, he didn’t need a repeat performance.

When Gavin blinked his eyes open, the first thing he noticed was the sun. That was wrong. The sun had already set when he went to sleep. That meant that-

He jolted up, expecting to see that Nines had fallen asleep without waking him or was just gone. Instead he saw Nines simply sitting at the campfire, looking a bit bored as he tended it.

“Why the fuck did you not wake me up?” Gavin demanded, causing Nines to jump at the sudden noise.

“Oh! Uhm, I … wanted to let you sleep?”

“What?”

“Look, you were obviously super tired yesterday so I just thought I’d just let you get more sleep. I mean, uhm, practically speaking, you’re supposed to protect me while we’re out here and I need you to be in your best condition if you’re going to do that.”

“So you just decided to pull an all-nighter so instead I’d have to put up with your tired ass all day?”

“Uh … yeah?”

Gavin sighed. “Have I told you how much I hate you recently?”

“Not since last night.”

“Well, then I hate you.”

“Feeling is mutual. I don’t like pulling all-nighters.”

“You brought that upon yourself. Don’t think we’re slowing down any or taking extra breaks cause you decided to let me sleep.”

Nines sighed heavily. “I guess that’s the last time I try to do something nice for you.”

“Good. I don’t want you to. It’s not a good look on you.”

The two ate their breakfast in silence and headed off on their journey again. They walked in their usual amount of silence until suddenly:

“Why do you hate me so much?” Nines broke the silence with.

“What?”

“I mean, even if we go as fast as we can, we’ll be stuck together for a whole month at least. Might as well talk some and I’m curious. I’m pretty sure your distaste for me began before Fowler called you into that meeting.”

“You’re right, it did. I mean, full offense, but you’re kinda a stuck-up bastard. Always glaring at everyone and shit, not even pretending to give a shit about a single person whose entire livelihood depends on you. I mean it’s better than Connor’s fake bullshit, but just cause you’ve got no problem acting like an asshole to everyone, doesn’t mean that I still can’t think you’re an asshole. ‘Sides no asshole deserves to have good bone structure.”

“Do my ears deceive me or is that an attempt at a compliment I hear?”

“Oh, piss off. It was an objective observation combined with the fact that you’re an asshole.”

“An objective observation, huh?”

“Listen, Tina agrees with me and she doesn’t fancy men. So yeah, it’s pretty objective.”

“You talk to your friends about me?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, me and all my friends have all kinda devoted ourselves to serve in you and your brother’s army, so yeah, you’ve come up in conversation once or twice.” Or three or four times. Or maybe a lot more times when Gavin was shitfaced and ranting about a certain pretentious princely prick whose face was way too pretty for it to be fair. “What about me? Why do you hate me so much?”

“You want to know?”

“Eh, I could probably guess. I’ve had enough people tell me their opinions of me that I’ve got a long list of reasons why a person could hate me I can go through.”

“Really? That many? If so many people take offense with you, why don’t you change things?”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“Sounds to me like it  _ is _ broke.”

“Disagree. I’ve got friends, a social circle, and have had mild to moderate success in romantic endeavors. That’s probably more than what you’ve got. Name three people you’re friends with who are not related to you, employed by you, or a political alliance.”

Nines paused before grumbling “Touche.”

“Ha, that’s what I thought. So spit it out- which of my reprehensible traits managed to piss off the prince?”

“Well, you’re insufferable, annoying, and hot-headed. You have a blatant disregard for all authority. Even without having interacted with you much prior, I could already tell that you would piss me off.”

“Sounds about right. A little unoriginal though. Those are all the top answers for non-romantic associates.”

“What do the romantic associates say?”

“You sure you want to hear about my relationship history?”

“You’re right, I don’t,” Nines replied crinkling his nose, “Nevermind.”

“Good. Last thing we would want is to have an emotionally deep conversation where we would be forced into feeling some sort of moral obligation for one another.”

“Agreed.”

The rest of the day was spent with light conversation. Usually some mixture of insults and general observations of the surrounding area. It … wasn’t  _ as _ bad as Gavin thought it would be but he wouldn’t admit to enjoying it at all. That night, Gavin took the first watch because seeing the guy get progressively more tired throughout the day was starting to be annoying. When Gavin woke him up for them to switch, Nines grumbled about still being tired but otherwise didn’t put up much of a fight.

Gavin definitely didn’t sleep well, but he didn’t have any nightmares that woke him up which was good. When Nines woke him up a couple of hours later, they were both pretty eager to get going. And maybe they were starting to have a bit of a routine. Gavin would never admit that the insults that they threw at each other were beginning to lose their bite. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment their relationship began to shift, but perhaps the prince wasn’t as horrible as Gavin believed. Didn’t mean that Gavin liked him or anything, but he was more … bearable now.

“Hey, uhm, why aren’t you as much of a royal pain in the ass? Like you’ve been surprisingly not a total royal brat this whole time.”

“If that was another attempt at a compliment, Reed, you’re still a bit off before you land one.”

“Fuck off. You’ve just … taken this whole thing a lot better than I thought you would.”

“Are you forgetting that I still have a black eye that you gave me after I punched on in the face? If that’s your definition of taking something well then I would hate to see how you think taking something poorly is.”

“Hey, look, I’ve been punched in the face by much better people than you.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

“But like, you really haven’t complained about traveling all day, eating rations, sleeping on the ground or any of that shit. Kinda thought you’d put up more of a fuss.”

“You’re the one who set the rules to no complaining or royalty treatment.”

“Yeah, cause I thought that it would be an issue. But you’ve been surprisingly tolerable.”

“I suppose it’s not in my nature,” Nines shrugged, “Not really one to voice my complaints out loud.”

“Yeah, that tracks.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, man, like the first hour we spent on this trip was the most I’ve heard you say at once ever. You’ve kinda got a reputation for being quiet.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Still doesn’t explain how you’re adjusting so well with this downgrade.”

“I guess I only started getting treated like royalty until a couple years ago. King has nine children and you don’t really expect that the youngest children are really going to matter much. With eight people ahead of me, my importance to the crown wasn’t much originally. And then when almost all the older children are off dying or causing trouble, it’s easy to slip through the cracks. Don’t think I really started getting treated like a prince till it started narrowing down to only me and Connor being left.”

“Wow, that, uh, that sounds pretty rough.”

“You’re not getting sentimental on me, are you?” Nines teased.

“Fuck, no,” Gavin quickly shot back, “And don’t think because you shared personal shit, I’m going to start talking about my fucked up family.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“Hell, no,” Gavin huffed, but there was a slight hint of a smile on his lips, “So like, were you close to your siblings or anything?”

“Not really. They were all older than me and were too busy dying or getting kicked out for me to ever really get to know them. Except for Connor since we’re so close in age and he’s stuck around.”

“What about Markus? You know, the guy we’re about to beg for help from?”

“I remember him leaving, but that’s about it. The age difference meant that we weren’t that close before.”

“You think that this plan is actually gonna work?”

“I’m not sure but I don’t think there’s much else we can do.”

“Well, here’s hoping that your estranged brother doesn’t just kill us both once we get there.”

They later stopped for the night in a small clearing off to the side of their path. Gavin got the fire going while Nines distributed their rations.

“Can I ask you a question?” Nines suddenly asked.

“Depends on the question.”

“Why did you become a knight? Given your distaste for authority and rules, it seems counterproductive to work a job where those are both major components.”

“Everyone in my family is a knight. That’s just how things are.”

“For some reason, you don’t strike me as the kind of person who would go along with something just because it’s a tradition in your family.”

“Look, you’ll forgive me for wanting a decent salary and means of survival. No offense, but your dad kinda sucked when it came to helping out any of the working class.”

“That’s true. Connor is trying to rectify our father’s failures, but it’s hard to rebuild an entire system. I … I think I can understand why you despise the entire royal family on principle.”

“I don’t,” the words were out of Gavin’s mouth before he had the sense to think about what he was saying, “despise you, that is.”

“You don’t?”

“I hate you, not despise you. There’s a difference,” Gavin rectified.

“There is?”

“Yeah, like hate isn’t the same as despise. You’re still a prick but I probably wouldn’t murder you if given the opportunity.”

“Wow, I’m so touched,” Nines dryly responded but he was smiling slightly.

“Don’t think that this extends to Connor. I still despise him.”

“I expected as much. Perhaps when this is all over, you and he can go on a journey together where you learn to stop despising him and go to just general hatred.”

“Fuck, no. I’m not doing this shit again.”

There was a brief bit of silence between them.

“I don’t either,” Nines cut in.

“What?”

“Despise you. I hate you, but I don’t despise you.”

“Well, at least the feeling is mutual.”

Gavin was not becoming friends with Nines. Their improved rapport was just them being … tolerant of each other. And he definitely wasn’t starting to enjoy himself, he just wasn’t super pissed off anymore as he became more adjusted to their situation. The fact that the insults they threw at each other felt more like inside jokes than actual digs at each other meant nothing as far as he was concerned.

“We’ve been going for about a week now with not much stopping,” Nines observed.

“What about it?”

“You think we could stop in the next town? You know, change it up a bit?”

Right, Gavin reminded himself. They were sick of spending all their time together and wanted to be around other people. Gavin definitely didn’t forget that.

“Right, yeah. Could stand to get to talk to someone else.”

Nines nodded and for some reason, Gavin suddenly felt like the air between them had shifted again. It wasn’t like it was before though. It felt like they were both recoiling away from each other as if they had just realized exactly how their relationship was beginning to change. Gavin admittedly didn’t like the feeling, but he wasn’t about to complain now. So what if he spent a couple of days with Nines where Nines wasn’t too bad to be around? He needed to remember the temporary nature of this trip and how much he was aching for this to be over. Because that was definitely still something he wanted. Definitely.

The next town wasn’t too far from them. Instead of going the long way around to avoid the crowds, Gavin and Nines walked directly into the town. It was a little jarring at first. Compared to the quiet and near abandoned forests, the town was exploding with life. It didn’t seem to help that there appeared to be some sort of festival going on as well. The duo approached the bustling town square that was packed with booths and performers of a wide variety.

“Don’t forget about our other rule. Don’t go running off and get yourself into trouble,” Gavin reminded him.

“I thought you wanted to get rid of me.”

“You know what I mean.” Gavin sure hoped he did because he wasn’t so sure himself anymore.

As they entered the center of the city, they did end up sticking close together. Whether it was out of habit or necessity, neither of them seemed too inclined to let the other get out of their line of sight. The festival was nice. Some local celebration of summer from the looks of it. Gavin barely kept track of the holidays and festivals in his own city, let alone the different regional ones. There were plenty of vendors, but he avoided those. They didn’t know how it would go down between them and Markus and he wasn’t ruling out bribery as a means of convincing him to help them. He wanted to hold on to as much of the money that they left with as possible. He noticed Nines eyeing the different parts of the festival with curiosity. Gavin supposed that he must not have been able to go to many events like these as a spectator and not an honored guest. It was almost endearing. Almost. At the same time, there was something off about Nines. If Gavin didn’t know any better, he would say that he was upset about something.

Gavin still felt on edge though. Maybe he was just paranoid, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched. He reasoned that he was just unaccustomed to being in crowded areas after spending nearly a week in the forest. But still, in the corner of his eye, he swore he kept seeing figures following and watching the two of them. Before he could warn Nines about it, one of the vendors practically appeared out of thin air by an abandoned alley and flagged them down. 

“Ah, you’re not from around here I wager,” the vendor said with a sly smile on his face.

“What’s it to you?” Gavin gruffly responded, not trusting the man one bit. He was ready to have to grab Nines and run at a moment’s notice.

“Oh, no need to be aggressive, good sir! I only ask because we always give a special discount to travelers from afar. Come to Madam Futane’s Shop of Fortunes for a free reading for both of you.”

“Sorry, but-” Gavin started.

“Okay,” Nines cut in, “lead the way.”

The man smiled and started walking down the alley with Nines following after him.

“Nines, what the fuck?” Gavin hissed out.

“I’ve never done something like this before and I’m curious. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“Fuck, of course, I’m coming,” Gavin grumbled and followed after them.

The man led them to an obscure door that was at the end of a narrow alley. Alarm bells were ringing in Gavin’s head but Nines seemed determined to go to the shop. The man led them into a small lobby that was ornately decorated.

“Please, gentlemen. Leave your weapons here. Madame Futane does not like the negative energy of weapons in her shop,” the man said as he gestured to a bench for them to lay the swords that hung on their hips.

Reluctantly, Gavin and Nines both took off their swords and laid them down. Gavin kept a hold of the knife in his sleeve, however. He wasn’t about to enter defenseless.

Once they had discarded their weapons, the man opened the doors to reveal a quite packed shop. There were tables everywhere covered in various trinkets, most of which Gavin had no idea what they were.

“Now, good sirs, Madame Futane will do a free tarot reading for both of you. However, she only is able to do this if only one of you is in the room. You, my fine sir,” he said as he clapped Nines on the shoulder, “She will speak to you first. Your companion must wait here.”

Gavin wanted to protest, but Nines only shot him a quick look that showed that he was comfortable with what he was doing, before he followed after the man through another door and disappeared out of sight.

Gavin tried to busy himself while he waited, looking at the different trinkets. But he didn’t understand any of it and quickly got bored. He wasn’t alone in the shop. There were five other customers, or workers? Gavin couldn’t tell, who had paid little attention to them as they walked in.

There wasn’t something right about the room. Gavin didn’t trust the other people who were lingering in the store. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but he could swear that he saw them giving each other silent looks and looked like they were somehow communicating with each other. He didn’t like how two of them shifted to stand by the door, blocking his exit. He really didn’t like how he and Nines had been forced to disarm themselves, but he could see the outline of weapons hidden by their clothes. And that’s when he put it all together.

There was something about how all the shop’s patrons had been dressed that had thrown him off initially. A small matching insignia embroidered on the sleeve of each of them. At first, he had dismissed it as some local symbol of sorts but now he remembered what it was. The emblem of the Stern family. This was a trap. And Nines was unarmed, outnumbered, and on his own.

Gavin quietly slid the knife he kept hidden in his sleeve out, doing his best not to raise suspicion. But something must have given him away because one of them started to approach him and firmly grabbed his right arm.

“Now, don’t do anything hasty. You’re not the one we want,” he whispered to Gavin, not bothering to conceal his sword anymore.

Gavin looked around the room. There were five of them in total and they had Gavin surrounded. Each of them was armed with a sword and all he had was his knife. He had the odds stacked against him but fuck it- he’s had worse odds stacked against him before.

In one fluid motion, he took the knife in his hand and jammed it into the side of the man grabbing his arm. Using the moment of surprise, Gavin reached over and pulled the man’s sword out of his sheath for him before finishing the job. He turned around, blocking the strike that the man on his left was making for his head. Quickly, he stabbed the man in his gut and pushed him back into the tables behind him. In the brief moment he had before the other three were on him, he switched the hands his sword and knife were in. Gavin had spent hours practicing fighting with his left hand when he had broken his right wrist two years ago, but his right was still his dominant hand. 

The third man was upon him and Gavin expertly blocked all of his attacks. The man then swung at Gavin’s head which he dodged by ducking. He took a moment while he was ducking to swing around and slash across the knees of the fourth man, effectively bringing him down to the ground. Gavin straightened up and stabbed the third man through the heart. The fourth man was already down so it was easy for Gavin to finish him. All that was left was the fifth man and he was nowhere to be seen.

Gavin assumed that the man must have gone to warn the others so Gavin ran towards the door that he had seen Nines enter. But before he was able to reach the door, the fifth man suddenly jumped in front of him from where he had been hiding and slashed his knife across Gavin's face leaving a crimson trail of blood across the bridge of his nose. Gavin was caught off guard by this so he took a few steps back giving the man enough time to take another stab right into his left leg. Gavin, finally getting a hold of his bearings, blocked the third attack that was intended to be the fatal one. Ignoring the pain shooting up his leg, he then finished the man off.

Standing upright, Gavin rushed into the room that he had seen Nines enter. He opened the door expecting to see Nines bound and gagged or worse. Instead what he saw appeared to be a quite normal tarot card reading taking place. His sudden interruption of the meeting seemed to catch both Nines and the woman reading the cards off guard. 

“Gavin! What the fuck are you doing?” Nines immediately questioned.

“They’re with the Sterns! We’ve got to leave now!”

Nines blinked back in surprise and a sour look crossed the woman’s face.

“Looks like the jig is up boys,” the woman observed, “you know what to do.”

Suddenly ten more members of Stern’s crew appeared out of what seemed like thin air. Nines quickly reacted to what was happening and stood up immediately as the two rushed back out of the room. They ran through the other part of the shop, avoiding the bodies that Gavin had left and made towards the door. Nines only stopped to grab the sword he had to leave at the front, but unfortunately, that was enough time for one of the men to catch up to him.

Luckily, it seemed like Nines knew his way around a sword because almost as soon as the man was on him, he was falling to the ground with a large gash across his front.

“Guess that’s not just for show, huh?” Gavin observed.

“Oh please, I’m just warming up.”

Before the rest of the men could catch up to them, Gavin grabbed Nines’ arm and ran off with him into the crowd. He could hear the shouting and pushing of the men behind them but luckily, Gavin knew a thing or two about making quick escapes. After dragging Nines through a series of winding alleyways and streets, Gavin was pretty confident that they had gotten them off their trail. The duo stopped to catch their breath in an empty alley far away from the city square.

“Ah, fuck. I should have seen that coming,” Nines breathed out as he leaned against the wall.

“We’ll have time for regret later. Right now I just want to get out of here quickly,” Gavin replied.

“You’re bleeding,” Nines observed as if he just now noticed Gavin’s injuries. He reached towards Gavin who flinched on instinct at the action. Nines pulled his hand back as if he had been burned. “We should really tend to those.”

“Wait till we’re out of the city. Then you can play doctor,” Gavin relented as he wiped away some of the blood that was dripping onto his mouth.

Nines didn’t seem satisfied with that, but he didn’t push Gavin on it. The two slowly and silently made their way out of the city, escaping anybody else’s notice. As they kept going, the shock and adrenaline of the moment began to go away and Gavin’s leg flared up in pain. He did his best to bite back the pain, but it was impossible for him to hide his limping as they approached the forest again.

“Fuck,” Gavin muttered after he stumbled a bit on a loose rock, causing even more pain to shoot across his leg.

“Here,” Nines said as he turned to him, “Let me help.”

“Fuck off, I’m fine.”

“You’ve lost a lot of blood already. I’d rather help you walk than carry your unconscious body.”

“Fine,” Gavin gritted out as he clung to Nines’ arm for balance, “I-”

“Hate you, yeah, yeah, I know. Feeling is mutual.”

The two of them hobbled off together until they found a small clearing off the beaten path, far away from the city lights. Gavin sat down at the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes as exhaustion waved over him.

“Don’t fall asleep yet,” Nines chided, “I’ve still got to clean your wounds.”

“Can’t that wait for later?”

“No,” Nines responded as he dug out the medical supplies they had brought with them in case of emergencies, “It cannot.”

Gavin groaned and slouched against the tree as Nines walked over with some disinfectant and bandages.

“Let’s start with your face, shall we?” Nines asked as he went to wipe the blood off of Gavin’s nose.

Gavin hissed in pain as the stinging disinfectant made contact with the open cut.

“Can’t you use something that hurts less?”

“Unless you want to risk an infection that could lead to your nose being cut off, then no.”

“Hmm, got me there. Can’t pick up any guys at the tavern without a nose. Or girls too, I’m not picky. Not like you royal types with all your concern about preserving bloodlines and all that shit.”

“Yeah, well I think my bloodline is already dying out regardless of what I do or don’t do,” Nines remarked as he continued cleaning the wound. 

“How’s it look, Doc?” Gavin teased, “Think I’ll live?”

“You’re most likely going to have a nasty scar across your nose, but otherwise you should be fine.”

“A scar, huh? Alright, I could live with that. Some people think scars are sexy.”

Nines chuckled softly. “I think you have an odd definition of sexy.”

“Oh really? What’s Mr. Prince here’s definition of sexy?”

Nines wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Don’t have one. I’m not really into that sort of stuff.”

“Well, then you don’t have a leg to stand on then when it comes to criticizing my definition.”

“Speaking of legs …” Nines started as he finished Gavin’s nose and went to the wound in his leg.

“Aw, fuck. You’ve got like one out of two. Can’t you give it a rest?”

“I don’t know, do you enjoy having two functioning legs?”

“Fine. I’m not going to enjoy it, though.”

Nines put his hands on his face in mock surprise. “Oh my! Gavin Reed is going to make a fuss while I do something nice for him? I am in utter shock right now!”

“Oh fuck off,” Gavin responded while trying to hold back his laughter.

Nines simply smiled and started working on cleaning up his leg. An easy silence fell between them as he worked. Gavin was accidentally drifting off again when suddenly Nines broke the silence with:

“I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“Look, I- it’s my fault you were injured. I suggested stopping in the city for a bit. I insisted on going to that fortune teller’s shop. I went into the room by myself even though there are people who actively want to kill me and my brother out here. I’m the reason why they attacked you in the first place. I’m just- sorry, okay?”

“Nines, it’s- it’s fine, alright? This is my job, remember? If I wasn’t having to protect you, then I would be having to do some other dangerous mission. I- it’s fine.”

Nines nodded but he didn’t say anything else. Gavin still felt a weight on his chest as something had been bothering him all day.

“You know, uhm …” Gavin started, “you know that I don’t mind having to spend all the time with you, right?”

“You don’t?” Nines shot his head up in surprise.

“No, uh,” Gavin kept his eyes trained everywhere but at the prince, “you’re not half bad, I guess. Figure I must be getting used to your dumbass face smirking at me every day. I still hate you though, of course, I just don’t mind it that much anymore.”

Nines smiled softly.

“I hate you too, Gavin,” he replied with a smile, “But I also don’t mind spending time with you either,”

“Cool,” Gavin awkwardly replied as he drummed his fingers against his uninjured thigh and focused on looking in the opposite direction.

After a few more minutes of tending the wound, Nines was finally making the final touches as he wrapped the bandage around Gavin’s leg.

“We should rest here for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll find a small village and stay at their inn for the night.”

“What? No way. Look how going to the city ended for us today? ‘Sides we’re already going to be a day behind because of this. No, we continue pushing through tomorrow.”

“Gavin, your leg needs some time to heal. Ideally, you should take a week off but that isn’t realistic given our current circumstances. Still, we can afford one day for you to rest. I’d rather us take a day off now, where we could stay somewhere indoors for the night than to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere because you refused to give your leg a break after it had been stabbed.”

“That doesn’t answer my issue of, what if there are more people working for the Sterns in the next village? I’m already compromised.”

“I’m more than just adequate with a sword, Gavin. Are you forgetting that I’m literally the lead military commander? I can handle myself pretty well if I have to.”

“Swapping jobs, are we? I’ll agree if it means that I’m now the prince in this arrangement.”

“You’re the one that set the rule of no royal treatment and I don’t intend to change it.”

Gavin pouted a little at that but ultimately sighed in defeat. “Fine, okay, whatever. We can stop in a village tomorrow, but only for one night, okay? Then it’s back to trying to organize a family reunion.”

Nines smiled and then went back to their bag to pull out some rations.

“I’ll take the first watch tonight. Get some rest, Gavin.”

Gavin only had to energy to nod before he was drifting off into slumber.

**Author's Note:**

> How was that y'all? Hope y'all liked it!!!
> 
> Like I said at the start, this was intended to all be a single one-shot. But, I be drinking idiot boy juice all the time nowadays so I figured that I might as well post the first part before it's even more late so that way I can hopefully get my stuff up for whump, monster AU, and Jane Austen AU before August (it'll be a stretch but I have faith in myself).
> 
> So, I'm hesitant to give an exact date for when the rest of this will come out but I suspect it will be sometime next week. I have it all planned out and after this, the plot really writes itself so I'm going to try to finish it up real quick and then return to the College AU I started at the beginning of the month cause that one is going to be a long fic lmao.
> 
> Yell at me on Tumblr @chaotic-bi-incarnate or on ig @elliot_475. Comments and kudos are always welcomed and appreciated.
> 
> Stay safe lovelies!!!!


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